The present disclosure relates to three-dimensional image capture, particularly with the use of polarized light.
The capture of three-dimensional (3D) images of a subject, such as a human, typically entails the use of multiple cameras and light sources, arranged about the subject, that are activated simultaneously while the subject remains still. The number of cameras and light sources required depends in direct relation on the size of the area to be imaged. An example of an imaging system for imaging a whole body is the VECTRA® WB360 from Canfield Scientific, Inc. which employs 92 DSLR cameras and 14 white-light sources.
For some applications, imaging modalities other than reflectance white-light images are needed. As an example, for imaging sub-surface features of tissue such as human skin, cross-polarized imaging can be used to reduce or eliminate surface reflections. In such a modality, an area of interest is illuminated with light of a first polarization and captured through filtering of a different, typically orthogonal polarization. The area of interest, however, that can be effectively imaged with such a modality is typically small, such as a region or patch of skin representing a relatively small portion of a whole body.
While existing systems such as the above-mentioned are capable of capturing high quality whole-body white-light images, the capture of high quality, whole-body cross-polarization images has heretofore been problematic.